Felicia Kornbluh | 2023 | Grove Press | 9780802160683
Subject: Biography
Source: The New York Times
Review: "This history takes its inspiration from a pair of neighbors on the eighth floor of 800 West End Avenue," writes the historian Felicia Kornbluh in the early pages of her comprehensive, compelling chronicle of the activists who fought to change New York's abortion laws both before and after Roe v. Wade. The neighbors in question were Helen Rodriguez-Trias, a Puerto Rican doctor who co-founded the C...Read More
A woman's life is a human life: my mother, our neighbour, and the journey from reproductive rights to reproductive justice
"This history takes its inspiration from a pair of neighbors on the eighth floor of 800 West End Avenue," writes the historian Felicia Kornbluh in the early pages of her comprehensive, compelling chronicle of the activists who fought to change New York's abortion laws both before and after Roe v. Wade. The neighbors in question were Helen Rodriguez-Trias, a Puerto Rican doctor who co-founded the Committee to End Sterilization Abuse, and the Jewish feminist lawyer Beatrice Kornbluh - the author's mother. Both women were key reformers who, despite their allied causes, and despite living on the same story of the same building, never joined forces. "There was proximity, but no relating," laments Kornbluh, who was inspired by this striking lack of cohesion to investigate and critique the two reproductive rights movements.
Henry Marsh | 2023 | St. Martin's Press | 9781250286086
Subject: Fiction
Source: The New York Times
Review: It was said by the Roman philosopher Cicero that to philosophize is to learn how to die. He was echoed by the 16th-century essayist Michel de Montaigne, sometimes in earnest, at other times in jest. "If you don't know how to die, don't worry," Montaigne playfully concluded. "Nature will tell you what to do on the spot, fully and adequately."...Read More
And finally: matters of life and death
It was said by the Roman philosopher Cicero that to philosophize is to learn how to die. He was echoed by the 16th-century essayist Michel de Montaigne, sometimes in earnest, at other times in jest. "If you don't know how to die, don't worry," Montaigne playfully concluded. "Nature will tell you what to do on the spot, fully and adequately."
Review: Anatoly Kuznetsov (1929-1979) was 12 years old in 1941 when the German army entered his neighborhood in the outskirts of Kiev. To his grandfather, as to many others, their arrival was a deliverance: It marked the end of Soviet rule, which had brought about collectivization, purges and the forced famine of the Holodomor. So he was quick to offer rationales when Nazi officials posted a decree demand...Read More
Babi yar: a document in the form of a novel
Anatoly Kuznetsov (1929-1979) was 12 years old in 1941 when the German army entered his neighborhood in the outskirts of Kiev. To his grandfather, as to many others, their arrival was a deliverance: It marked the end of Soviet rule, which had brought about collectivization, purges and the forced famine of the Holodomor. So he was quick to offer rationales when Nazi officials posted a decree demanding that all Kiev Jews present themselves at a camp along a ravine known locally as Babi Yar- they were likely being deported, perhaps to Palestine.
Martin Puchner | 2023 | W. W. Norton & Company | 9780393867992
Subject: Arts and Culture
Source: The Wall Street Journal
Review: Half-quoting Martin Luther King Jr., Mr. Puchner argues in "Culture: The Story of Us, From Cave Art to K-Pop" that "the arc of cultural history bends toward circulation and mixture." His book gathers an imaginary museum of selected texts, artifacts and artwork-music, apart from Korean pop, seldom features-from across three millennia. This episodic history of human creativity is framed as a tale of...Read More
Culture: the story of us, from cave art to K-pop
Half-quoting Martin Luther King Jr., Mr. Puchner argues in "Culture: The Story of Us, From Cave Art to K-Pop" that "the arc of cultural history bends toward circulation and mixture." His book gathers an imaginary museum of selected texts, artifacts and artwork-music, apart from Korean pop, seldom features-from across three millennia. This episodic history of human creativity is framed as a tale of endless encounters, exchanges and transmissions.
Sander van der Linden | 2023 | W. W. Norton & Company | 9780393881448
Subject: Healthcare
Source: Financial Times
Review: Rukmani and her family were driving to a temple in Tamil Nadu, India, in May 2018, when they stopped to ask for directions from an elderly local lady. It seemed a safe enough thing to do. The family hadn't realised that almost every local with access to WhatsApp had been receiving dire warnings of "child lifters", forwarded from group chat to group chat. The local lady thought these over-friendly ...Read More
Foolproof: why misinformation infects our minds and how to build immunity
Rukmani and her family were driving to a temple in Tamil Nadu, India, in May 2018, when they stopped to ask for directions from an elderly local lady. It seemed a safe enough thing to do. The family hadn't realised that almost every local with access to WhatsApp had been receiving dire warnings of "child lifters", forwarded from group chat to group chat. The local lady thought these over-friendly strangers matched the description and raised the alarm. A crowd descended on the family car and began a vicious mob beating, which killed Rukmani and left the others close to death. Misinformation can be fatal. There are plenty of people trying to fool us these days - and plenty of people happy to be fooled. Sander van der Linden, a professor of social psychology at Cambridge university, has been studying the problem for years, and promises to help us "build immunity" to misinformation.
Sabrina Orah Mark | 2023 | Random House | 9780593242476
Subject: Biography
Source: The New York Times
Review: "Fairy tales themselves are well-trodden paths," writes Sabrina Orah Mark in "Happily," her new essay collection. "I connect pieces of fairy tales to walk me through motherhood, and marriage, and America, and weather, and loneliness, and failure, and inheritance, and love." When history and truth are subject to excruciating debate, returning to the ur-texts of one's childhood seems completely sens...Read More
Happily: a personal history-with fairy tales
"Fairy tales themselves are well-trodden paths," writes Sabrina Orah Mark in "Happily," her new essay collection. "I connect pieces of fairy tales to walk me through motherhood, and marriage, and America, and weather, and loneliness, and failure, and inheritance, and love." When history and truth are subject to excruciating debate, returning to the ur-texts of one's childhood seems completely sensible.
Ashoka Mody | 2023 | Stanford University Press | 9781503630055
Subject: Social Science
Source: The Wall Street Journal
Review: "India Is Broken." Today, 75 years after independence from Britain, Mr. Mody believes that India's democracy and economy are in a state of profound malfunction. The book's tale, he writes, "is one of continuous erosion of social norms and decay of political accountability." You might add that it is also a tale of an audacious political experiment on the brink of failure....Read More
India is broken: a people betrayed, independence to today
"India Is Broken." Today, 75 years after independence from Britain, Mr. Mody believes that India's democracy and economy are in a state of profound malfunction. The book's tale, he writes, "is one of continuous erosion of social norms and decay of political accountability." You might add that it is also a tale of an audacious political experiment on the brink of failure.
Review: Every day in Mexico, 10 women die by femicide, a hate crime wherein a woman is murdered because she is a woman. You can be forgiven for not knowing this term. We almost never use it in the United States, though we should. The language Americans use for the murders of women by men leans heavily on aberrance and singularity - men who murder women have "snapped," they are -evil,' they are "disaffecte...Read More
Liliana's invincible summer: a sister's search for justice
Every day in Mexico, 10 women die by femicide, a hate crime wherein a woman is murdered because she is a woman. You can be forgiven for not knowing this term. We almost never use it in the United States, though we should. The language Americans use for the murders of women by men leans heavily on aberrance and singularity - men who murder women have "snapped," they are -evil,' they are "disaffected outsiders." These qualities obscure what connects the crimes: not sex, as many assume, but power - more specifically, men's assertion of power over women. These men haven't snapped; in fact, they usually have long track records of domestic and other violence.
Jennifer Wright | 2023 | Hachette Books | 9780306826795
Subject: Biography
Source: The New York Times
Review: Jennifer Wright opens her painfully timely biography of Madame Restell, the notorious "abortionist of Fifth Avenue," with her final arrest, in 1878, at the hands of the anti-vice crusader Anthony Comstock. For Comstock, a Victorian zealot who smeared his sexual obsessions all over American life well into the 20th century, this was the climax of an epic struggle between Satan's handmaiden and his f...Read More
Madame Restell: the life, death, and resurrection of old New York's most fabulous, fearless, and infamous abortionist
Jennifer Wright opens her painfully timely biography of Madame Restell, the notorious "abortionist of Fifth Avenue," with her final arrest, in 1878, at the hands of the anti-vice crusader Anthony Comstock. For Comstock, a Victorian zealot who smeared his sexual obsessions all over American life well into the 20th century, this was the climax of an epic struggle between Satan's handmaiden and his flaming sword of righteousness. To Restell, a grandmother in her late 60s, it was merely the latest in a long line of tedious interruptions to her business.
Meeta and Rajivlochan | 2023 | Manohar | 9789390035205
Subject: General
Source: Economic and Political Weekly
Review: What explains the contrast between India's chronic poverty and its vast resource reserves? How instrumental was colonialism in amplifying this mismatch? What prevents present-day institutions from maximally leveraging India's talent pool for overall growth? These are some of the guiding questions that Meeta Rajivlochan and Rajivlochan field in the book under review. They delve into India's past an...Read More
Making India great again: learning from our history
What explains the contrast between India's chronic poverty and its vast resource reserves? How instrumental was colonialism in amplifying this mismatch? What prevents present-day institutions from maximally leveraging India's talent pool for overall growth? These are some of the guiding questions that Meeta Rajivlochan and Rajivlochan field in the book under review. They delve into India's past and offer two possible explanations: first, a failure to standardise knowledge production and retention systems; and second, a lack of evidence-based and institutionalised decision-making processes steered by competent state power. The authors, a civil servant and a historian, bring into dialogue outstanding insights from their areas of expertise to formulate correctives that ensure accessible and transparent knowledge creation-retention systems in public as well as private institutions.
Mike Pompeo | 2023 | Broadside Books | 9780063247444
Subject: Biography
Source: The Wall Street Journal
Review: Mr. Pompeo loathes disingenuous language, which makes it all the more delightful that he was secretary of state. "Diplo-speak," as he calls it, is designed to say very little in as many words as possible. His description of diplomatic communiqu's, bland statements of putative agreement drafted after multilateral talks, is delightfully ill-tempered. "Even the effete-sounding name makes me bristle ....Read More
Never give an inch: fighting for the America I love
Mr. Pompeo loathes disingenuous language, which makes it all the more delightful that he was secretary of state. "Diplo-speak," as he calls it, is designed to say very little in as many words as possible. His description of diplomatic communiqu's, bland statements of putative agreement drafted after multilateral talks, is delightfully ill-tempered. "Even the effete-sounding name makes me bristle . . . pointless documents . . . an extravagant waste of time." Toward the end of the book, in which Mr. Pompeo offers broad observations on U.S. interests abroad, he makes some sharp observations.
Review: Indeed, Clampitt was one of a kind, her work stubbornly and satisfyingly unclassifiable. "I'm not a poet of place, but of displacement," she once proclaimed. She managed to be both, her poems depicting the various locations she visited or called home, but also chronicling escape, immigration, disorientation and dispossession. Many of those poems commune with nature, exploring the physical world of...Read More
Nothing stays put: the life and poetry of Amy Clampitt
Indeed, Clampitt was one of a kind, her work stubbornly and satisfyingly unclassifiable. "I'm not a poet of place, but of displacement," she once proclaimed. She managed to be both, her poems depicting the various locations she visited or called home, but also chronicling escape, immigration, disorientation and dispossession. Many of those poems commune with nature, exploring the physical world of flora, fauna, landscape and weather. Some tap into Clampitt's political activism and crises of faith.
Shadi Bartsch | 2023 | Princeton University Press | 9780691229591
Subject: History
Source: The Wall Street Journal
Review: In the opening pages of "Plato Goes to China," classicist Shadi Bartsch promises that by tracing the history of the Chinese reception of ancient Greek and Roman political philosophy, her book offers "a uniquely illuminating vantage point for observing China's transformation in its cultural and political self-confidence." She further promises to explore in depth the uses that have been made of the ...Read More
Plato goes to China: the Greek classics and Chinese nationalism
In the opening pages of "Plato Goes to China," classicist Shadi Bartsch promises that by tracing the history of the Chinese reception of ancient Greek and Roman political philosophy, her book offers "a uniquely illuminating vantage point for observing China's transformation in its cultural and political self-confidence." She further promises to explore in depth the uses that have been made of the Western classics in the 33 years since the violent suppression of the Tiananmen Square pro-democracy movement.
Review: Needless to say, the debates that Hasan writes about seem to meet certain conditions - you have a case to make; your opponent has a case to make; you're more or less equally matched; and whatever you say won't impinge on the relationship between you (and even if it does, you don't care). In "Say the Right Thing," Yoshino and Glasgow are talking about different kinds of conversations. Relating is a...Read More
Say the right thing: how to talk about identity, diversity, and justice
Needless to say, the debates that Hasan writes about seem to meet certain conditions - you have a case to make; your opponent has a case to make; you're more or less equally matched; and whatever you say won't impinge on the relationship between you (and even if it does, you don't care). In "Say the Right Thing," Yoshino and Glasgow are talking about different kinds of conversations. Relating is all, even if the person you're talking to starts out as a stranger. Disagreement might be part of it, but even disagreement can be reparative; the key is to do it in a way that leads "your conversation partner to feel more heard and respected."
Joseph Earl Thomas | 2023 | Grand Central Publishing | 9781538706176
Subject: Biography
Source: The New York Times
Review: The trick of memoir resides in the illusion it conjures: Living is ongoing, but the packaged product can imply a totality. Something has been learned, or experienced or endured, and tidily enough to have been condensed between two covers. What the reader ultimately receives is the extract of a life. In deft hands, you're privy to the purest distillation of its burdens and boons. But despite the ru...Read More
Sink: a memoir
The trick of memoir resides in the illusion it conjures: Living is ongoing, but the packaged product can imply a totality. Something has been learned, or experienced or endured, and tidily enough to have been condensed between two covers. What the reader ultimately receives is the extract of a life. In deft hands, you're privy to the purest distillation of its burdens and boons. But despite the ruse of palpable resolution, the business of discerning your identity is dynamic and never-ending.
Azzan Yadin-Israel | 2023 | University of Chicago Press | 9780226820767
Subject: General
Source: The Wall Street Journal
Review: In "Temptation Transformed: The Story of How the Forbidden Fruit Became an Apple," Mr. Yadin-Israel, a professor of Jewish studies at Rutgers, notes that the original Hebrew of Genesis never claims that Adam and Eve partook of an apple. Instead it refers to peri, a generic term for fruit. Likewise the Septuagint, the ancient translation of Hebrew holy texts into Greek, calls it karpos, and the Vul...Read More
Temptation transformed: the story of how the forbidden fruit became an apple
In "Temptation Transformed: The Story of How the Forbidden Fruit Became an Apple," Mr. Yadin-Israel, a professor of Jewish studies at Rutgers, notes that the original Hebrew of Genesis never claims that Adam and Eve partook of an apple. Instead it refers to peri, a generic term for fruit. Likewise the Septuagint, the ancient translation of Hebrew holy texts into Greek, calls it karpos, and the Vulgate, the early church's official Latin translation
Helene Stapinski, Bonnie Siegler | 2023 | Simon & Schuster | 9781982171667
Subject: History
Source: The New York Times
Review: While "The American Way" centers on Schulback, a German-born Jew who became a successful Manhattan furrier and amateur filmmaker, it also spotlights Harry Donenfeld, the man who was his financial sponsor in 1938. (At the time, sponsors were required for Jews trying to escape the Nazis and enter the United States.) Donenfeld was a publisher of "girlie" magazines, but, as Stapinski and Siegler repor...Read More
The American way: a true story of Nazi escape, superman, and Marilyn Monroe
While "The American Way" centers on Schulback, a German-born Jew who became a successful Manhattan furrier and amateur filmmaker, it also spotlights Harry Donenfeld, the man who was his financial sponsor in 1938. (At the time, sponsors were required for Jews trying to escape the Nazis and enter the United States.) Donenfeld was a publisher of "girlie" magazines, but, as Stapinski and Siegler report in great detail, he made his fortune by publishing Superman comics. In doing so, he cheated the Jewish creators of the cartoon, the writer Jerry Siegel and the artist Joe Shuster, out of their rights, leaving them to earn a pittance while he pocketed many millions from the "Man of Steel." Donenfeld was a philanderer, and a bit of a schmuck (he wore a Superman T-shirt under his suits), but
Priscilla Gilman | 2023 | W. W. Norton & Company | 9780393651324
Subject: Biography
Source: The New York Times
Review: Priscilla Gilman's new memoir, "The Critic's Daughter," is about her tangled relationship with her father, the critic Richard Gilman. By the end of the book, there's a lot of blood on the floor, but it doesn't belong to the author or her ostensible subject. Richard Gilman's name has begun to fade, like a paperback left too long in the sun, but in the 1970s and 80s he was a critical and academic ti...Read More
The critic's daughter: a memoir
Priscilla Gilman's new memoir, "The Critic's Daughter," is about her tangled relationship with her father, the critic Richard Gilman. By the end of the book, there's a lot of blood on the floor, but it doesn't belong to the author or her ostensible subject. Richard Gilman's name has begun to fade, like a paperback left too long in the sun, but in the 1970s and 80s he was a critical and academic titan. He was theater critic at Newsweek back when that meant something, and then at The Nation. He taught for three decades at the Yale School of Drama.
Lisa Damour Ph.D. | 2023 | Ballantine Books | 9780593500019
Subject: Social Science
Source: The New York Times
Review: You know what's enjoyable about living with teenagers' Nothing. Truly, not one thing. They might distract you by appearing to be deeply interesting and funny, but don't be fooled - teenagers are diabolical. They have studied their parents and caregivers enough to know what we'll find most irritating. And now, adding insult to injury, our worries about them have amplified over the past few years, w...Read More
The emotional lives of teenagers: raising connected, capable, and compassionate adolescents
You know what's enjoyable about living with teenagers' Nothing. Truly, not one thing. They might distract you by appearing to be deeply interesting and funny, but don't be fooled - teenagers are diabolical. They have studied their parents and caregivers enough to know what we'll find most irritating. And now, adding insult to injury, our worries about them have amplified over the past few years, with good reason. Studies show that adolescent rates of depression and anxiety had a sharp uptick during the pandemic.
Review: The word "exception" implies rules, and as we know, rules are made to be broken. But in real life, it can be a frustrating business - especially if you're a woman in science, especially in the decades leading up to the 21st century and especially if you're not the rule-breaking type. There were 16 rule breakers on the faculty of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. And exactly what these wom...Read More
The exceptions: Nancy Nopkins, MIT, and the fight for women in science
The word "exception" implies rules, and as we know, rules are made to be broken. But in real life, it can be a frustrating business - especially if you're a woman in science, especially in the decades leading up to the 21st century and especially if you're not the rule-breaking type. There were 16 rule breakers on the faculty of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. And exactly what these women endured for the right to do their work is the subject of Kate Zernike's excellent and infuriating new book. Inspired by a story Zernike broke for The Boston Globe in 1999, "The Exceptions" is an intimate, behind-the-scenes account of how those scientists conducted a four-year study that resulted in M.I.T.'s admitting to a long history of sexual discrimination.
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